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Izzo named environmental health and safety director

Posted January 29, 2013; 12:00 p.m.

by the Office of Communications

Robin Izzo, the associate director for laboratory safety at Princeton University, has been named director of the University's Office of Environmental Health and Safety (EHS). Her appointment is effective March 1.

She will succeed current EHS director Garth Walters, who will retire from Princeton at the end of February after working at the University for 36 years, including 15 years as EHS director.

Izzo has worked in EHS for more than 20 years, serving as associate director for laboratory safety since 2006. She has played a leading role in the University's laboratory safety program, industrial hygiene program and emergency preparedness efforts. Izzo will report to Treby Williams, the University's assistant vice president for safety and administrative planning.

"Robin has been an outstanding leader of our laboratory safety program and is extremely respected by her University colleagues, as well as her peers nationally," Williams said. "She will bring to the director position her deep knowledge of Princeton and strong relationships with campus partners, together with the expertise and perspective she gains from her extensive work in state and national environmental management organizations."

As director of EHS, Izzo will oversee a staff of 13 people, which includes biologists, chemists, health physicists, an industrial hygienist and safety engineers who deliver services and programs across the University in laboratory safety and industrial hygiene; radiation safety; biosafety and environmental health; and workplace safety.

"I have been privileged to work with Garth Walters, the current director, for the past 21 years as our office has taken on new challenges," Izzo said. "I am very excited and honored to lead such an effective and well-respected team, who have formed strong academic and administrative campus partnerships to support a safe, healthy and sustainable University community."

Izzo helped develop an extensive University laboratory safety program that includes faculty, staff and student trainings, inspection programs and pollution prevention efforts. In 2011, the American Chemical Society and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health recognized Princeton as the most comprehensive laboratory safety program in higher education.

In her current position, Izzo coordinates 13 chemical hygiene officers in science and engineering departments.

Izzo also has helped coordinate the University's emergency preparedness efforts. She serves on the Emergency Preparedness Steering Committee, which develops emergency plans for individual offices and the entire campus. She helped oversee the launch of PTENS, the University's emergency notification system for faculty, staff and students.

As a representative of EHS, Izzo has served on the Princeton Sustainability Committee, which monitors progress against and sets strategies to achieve the goals of the Princeton Sustainability Plan.

A nationally recognized expert, Izzo has published numerous articles on laboratory safety and environmental management. She has served in leadership positions in both state and national organizations and is chair of the American Chemical Society's Laboratory and Waste Management Task Force. Izzo received a 2007 Knighthood Award from the New Jersey Campus Health and Environmental Safety Society for distinguished achievement.

Prior to joining Princeton in 1992, Izzo served as chemical safety specialist at the University of Vermont and managed chemical safety and laboratory programs at Harvard University.

Izzo earned a master of science in environmental science from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.